


Storm Breaking

by Laylah



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Genre: Multi, Neutral Ending, New Game Plus Challenge, Post-Canon, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-29
Updated: 2010-03-29
Packaged: 2017-10-08 12:33:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/75693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laylah/pseuds/Laylah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You were both inside the hospital," Naoki says. "I was up on the roof. When the lightning came down."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Storm Breaking

They don't talk about it for months after it's over -- long enough that Isamu would almost believe it had been a delirious nightmare, some nasty fever dream brought on by watching too many of Naoki's low-budget horror movies while they lost sleep pretending to study for entrance exams. Almost, except that no nightmare would have left Naoki with that older-than-his-years expression. No nightmare would have made Chiaki decide to ditch her older, successful boyfriends for them.

Hell, no nightmare would have made Isamu into a philosopher, right? Not for more than a few hours, anyway. So it must have happened, but not talking about it makes it feel distant and unreal.

When summer break comes, Chiaki's parents want to take a trip, get away from the heat in Tokyo for a while. She doesn't go with them, claims she can't afford the time off from studying, and because she's always taken that stuff seriously they believe her. She invites Naoki and Isamu over as soon as they're gone, though. They spend the sweltering afternoons in her air-conditioned apartment, and in the evenings they go up to the roof of her building to get a little fresh air. The city lights make it impossible to see more than the brightest stars, but none of them really care. They're not looking up at Kagatsuchi, right? Isamu figures that's enough.

Tonight there are clouds rolling in, dark burnt orange with reflected light from the streets below, and that means no stars at all. Isamu leans back on his hands, looking up into the dark. "Think it'll rain?" he says. The air feels so heavy, so thick with humidity, it seems like it has to burst soon.

"Maybe," Chiaki says. She runs her fingers through her hair, gathers it up off the back of her neck to take advantage of the little breeze that's finally kicked up. "I hope so."

Light flickers in the distance, and Isamu cranes his head to look. "You see that?" he asks.

"See what?" Naoki asks.

"Might have been lightning," Isamu says. It might have been just the warning lights off a helicopter or something, but he can hope.

Naoki looks in the direction Isamu nods, but the light doesn't flash again, and there's no thunder. Isamu's just starting to feel disappointed when Naoki says, quiet and even, "That's how it started, you know."

Neither of them say anything, but Chiaki sits up a little straighter and Isamu reaches out to put a hand on Naoki's arm. It's clammy despite the heat.

"You were both inside the hospital," Naoki says. "I was up on the roof. When the lightning came down."

Talk about a storm breaking.

For a second they're quiet. Engines purr down at street level, and somewhere a girl shrieks with laughter. Everything is fine. "Were you scared?" Chiaki asks.

"What is this, truth or dare?" Isamu says. He's suddenly not so sure talking about this is a good idea.

"No," Chiaki says, smirking at him across Naoki's lap. Isamu thinks of blind, shuddering manikins in the tower, muttering about the merciless queen of angels. "Just truth. No second option."

Naoki shifts between them, shrugs like he's trying to get a weight off his shoulders. "Yes," he says. "Of course I was."

"Yeah," Isamu says. It's easier once Naoki's said it first. "So much crazy stuff in the Vortex World." He's never said a word about being the Mantra's captive, not even to Naoki, who knows. He wants to believe Chiaki doesn't, wants to think she never heard stories from any of her minions. "Just trying not to get eaten alive by demons, I mean...."

"Mmm," Naoki says. He rubs the back of his neck. "That, too. By the end, though, the scariest part was just knowing what I could do."

"We had no choice," Chiaki says hotly, and Isamu wonders what her regrets are. He's trying not to think about Hijiri, about what it must feel like to be melted down in a raw swirl of magatsuhi. If they're all back, does that mean Hijiri is alive again somewhere, too? Does he have nightmares about Amala and not know what they are?

"We made choices all the time," Naoki says. He reaches for each of their hands. His fingers are surprisingly cool, given the damp warmth of the air. "None of us wanted to give up. We kept choosing that. Even when it was hard."

"And then you chose to bring us all back," Isamu says. He doesn't think he would have brought either of them to his world -- not in any way that counted. And even if he could have survived what Chiaki had in mind, he probably wouldn't have wanted to.

"Are you ever sorry?" Chiaki asks. A truck growls by on the street and she ducks her head, waits for its noise to fade. "Not for bringing us back, I mean. If you're sorry about that, I don't want to know. It's just -- you had the power of Creation. You didn't want to do something grander with it?"

Naoki shrugs. "Maybe," he says. "It seemed like so much responsibility, though. What if I forgot something important? All the Reasons did."

There's another flicker of lightning, jumping from one cloud to another, and this time it gets followed up with a growl of thunder. Naoki shivers, even before the gust of cool wind sweeps across their rooftop.

"Should we go inside?" Isamu asks. He's looking at Chiaki but he's not really asking her.

"It's okay," Naoki says. "It's just rain."

Chiaki nods. "We'd...It feels like we'd know, if something like that were happening again. We'd see it coming."

Isamu's not sure he wants that to be true. He looks out over the city, squinting so his vision blurs, so the glow of streetlights and taillights smear together into a throbbing, endlessly circulating network. Where their hands press together he can feel the pulse of Naoki's blood through his fingers. Energy and desire, always moving.

The wind kicks up again, pulling at their clothes, teasing Isamu's hair away from his neck. He takes a deep breath, and it tastes like rain.

This time the lightning flashes almost right overhead, bright purply white, and the thunder comes right on its heels, so loud Isamu would swear he feels it in his bones. He jumps, and Naoki's hand squeezes his tight.

Rain sweeps in on the next gust of wind, hissing down, pattering against the rooftops around them. It's cool in the hot air, heavy drops soaking straight through Isamu's clothes. Naoki leans back, turning his face up into it. His eyes are closed, and he's smiling.

Chiaki says something Isamu doesn't hear over the fall of rain. Naoki turns to look at her as she rises up on her knees. Her tank top is soaked through, clinging, her nipples stiff through the fabric. She leans toward Naoki, presses her mouth to his, and he kisses back without letting go of Isamu's hand. Raindrops run down the planes of his face and when lightning flashes again, for a second it looks like there are marks glowing there.

The image fades when Isamu blinks, though, and then Naoki is turning toward him to kiss him, too. His lips taste cool and fresh with rain, but when they part his mouth is warm. Human. Chiaki's hands are sliding around Naoki's waist, pushing up underneath his shirt. Isamu closes his eyes and leans into the kiss. It's a new world. They're alive. Let the storm come.


End file.
